I was shocked when IHM sent out a mail the other day informing people that the Indian government was drafting a law on monitoring Indian blogs. I really thought we were beyond this. I mean after all the progress Indian civil society has made in the past few years, with all the Supreme Court’s observations about the importance of freedom of speech even if it offends people, we’re still hit with this kind of crap.
Well, I can understand certain restrictions. If I were to blog about the locations of secret nuclear installations, that would be an issue. If I were to put up pictures of child porn, I can see why the government should hold me responsible. The real problem is the reasons for which a blog can be taken down. Just look at the proposals:
You’re not allowed to “annoy” people :D – A lot of people annoy me on the web. I put up with it.
You can’t indulge in “blasphemy”: Or what – I get shot like those poor guys in Pakistan?
Your blog can’t “incovenience” people – Someone’s delicate feelings are hurt on my site which they choose to visit and that’s my problem?
You can’t “disparage” someone – What exactly does that mean? If I feel a guy’s an asshole I can’t call him that?
To cap it all, it says anything “otherwise objectionable” can land me in jail for 2 years (!) or a fine of a few lakhs.
On reading the draft proposal, it seems the government wants to put my humble blog on par with a telecom company by calling it an “intermediary.” They want me to run it like a business, with ISO certifications! The only phrase I can find which describes this move is “monumentally stupid” and is a symptom of a government which is badly out of touch with reality and just doesn’t “get” what the Internet is all about.
On the other hand, I’m happy there’s hell being raised. Three years ago when the govt. implemented the draconian IT amendment bill, there was no outcry at all. No one knew about it and no one cared. I had to get the news from a US tech site called Slashdot which was stunned that India “Sleepwalked into a surveillance state.” Looks like things are very different now than just a few years back. The government won’t have the balls to push this bullshit law now that it’s kicked up such a shitstorm. In any case, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will strike it down as soon as someone challenges it.
My blog is my personal space. I’m not forcing anyone to visit. You come here at your own peril. As an adult, you’re qualified to make the choice to either leave or stay. If you stay, it’s my rules and my content. If you get offended, that’s your tough luck. Deal with it. Don’t go crying to the authorities that I offended your precious sensibilities. The Indian government’s attempt to tell me what I can and cannot say is insulting. It has no business being the arbitrator of what is acceptable or not. Especially when no one is forced to visit any web page on the Internet.
So basically the act is trying to punish people because some people might get their feelings hurt? Wow, just wow. Just how exactly do they plan to enforce this? Are they going to monitor every blog in India? My goodness.
In reply to RenKiss
It’s hilarious. The govt. doesn’t even know that it’s impossible to do this :) . Whoever drafted this law clearly knows nothing about what blogs really are and how prevalent they are in the Indian Internet space.
But like I said, it won’t go through. The courts won’t allow it and neither will the people…
In reply to bhagwad
Bhagwad,
I completely agree with what all you had written in your post, so am not adding anything to it.
A few related points. ‘Government’ is not stupid. Also, if they somehow insert the ‘hottest button’ into the equation – ‘religion’/’regional pride’ – even the SC might allow some of the provisions to be passed. But that all is in the domain of speculation so not to be taken seriously.
However, of course the government cannot monitor each and every blog, and that is what even I was thinking. But these laws are also like terrorism – it is not the number or fraction of blogs getting monitored and consequently, the bloggers getting penalized that matters. You just harass one or two bloggers – make them accused, tarnish their image in the public space, make the employers wary of such ‘trouble-making employees’ and a vast majority of bloggers will start playing it safe. It might be possible to legally win law suits if ever one is slapped (assuming such a bill gets passed), but most people, including myself, would like to avoid such trouble, especially when ‘example’ would be made out of a few ‘defiant’ people. After all, too much would be at stake for most people in these times of inflation and delays in the judicial process.
I will give my own example – I truly hate religion and supernaturalism, but it is just the awareness of section 295-A of IPC that makes me lot more circumspect about writing against religion. I am way too restrained, many times have to put across my points indirectly and have to resort to euphemism.
But there are some technical issues, too. Would it matter where the servers of the said blogs would be located?
In reply to Ketan
Good points Ketan. I totally get your point about legal terrorism vis a vis a few people, but such strategies need not always work. Look at the problem of downloading content via bittorrent. Many individuals have got caught and fined millions of dollars and made to settle. These cases are publicized. And yet it shows no signs of stopping. The same thing may happen with blogs.
Second, blocking a website, punishing its owner and then having it struck down in court (probably with some acerbic remarks from the judge) is humiliating for the government. They probably won’t do it willy nilly. And of course, once a judicial precedent has been set, no more cases can be filed along the same lines.
I’m not a lawyer, so I might be wrong about all this. But it’s interesting :)
In reply to RenKiss
i think they will try to monitor every blog…but they would not do anything because that also know that it is not a easy job to stop common people’s voice.
This is the most absurd thing I’ve heard. Thanks for bringing this to my notice.
Does it also apply to the Indian media? It will have to be muzzled, too, isn’t it?
Shame on the Indian idiots who think of such laws.
The fools and thugs who govern India long ago lost any legitimacy.
Please join or support FTI (http://freedomteam.in/). We must replace these JOKERS.
Regards
Sanjeev
In reply to Sanjeev Sabhlok
Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem to apply to the Indian media. The govt. seems to think that the Internet is a special beast and that anyone who has a website is like a service provider. The convoluted logic that went into reaching the conclusion that blogs are like ISPs must be seen to be believed!
In reply to bhagwad
I guess media already are reachable: addresses and contacts known. They have permits they need to take and can be revoked?
In addition to Bhagwad’s short list of exclusions, I have to suggest that sites that actively promote hate speech are good candidates for govt action., though there is a slippery slope there on the definition of hate.
thanks,
Jai
In reply to Jai_C
Yeah, it’s tough to know how to define these things. I would say that as long as a speech doesn’t actively call for violence, it should be allowed…
But then public hate speech laws are in place…don’t know how far to go.
In reply to bhagwad
One interesting and even disturbing example from a libertarian site Radley Balko at theagitatorDOTcom:
He wants no case filed against a man who enticed people over the internet to commit suicide. I didnt click the links there but from the comments the guy pretended to be a nurse and kept sustained contact with his targets until they killed themselves.
Balko says this guy is being an asshole but has broken no law.
It is possible he haunted sites where depressed ppl posted and were already taking abt suicide as an option ; a pure guess on my part but indicating that the idea maybe did not originate with this creep.
This isnt hate speech… to the victim it probably comes across as quite the opposite even! But it is speech motivated transparently by the desire to get one to cause harm albeit to oneself. Abetting a suicide is I think already a crime in India. I dont know how this goes in the US.
thanks,
Jai
In reply to Jai_C
I definitely think a case could be made for abetting a suicide. Naturally it’s not a clear cut case. So let it go to court, and let arguments be made for both sides and we’ll see what the court says…
What an absurd list of highly subjective terms they’ve discovered! “Annoy”? I’d be in jail tomorrow! “Disparage”? Better make that by sundown today. “Blasphemy”? Oh hell, just take me out back and shoot me already. This sounds like the kind of bullshit I’d expect to see coming out of the Republican controlled US Congress. Hey, if I post a blasphemous, disparaging comment on your blog and it annoys someone, do you think they’ll try to get me too? Or will they just punish you for not censoring me?
In reply to Thurman
They want every blogger to have a form which people can fill out to complain. Very much like the US’s DMCA. The problem here is that bloggers aren’t ISPs!
“On the other hand, I’m happy there’s hell being raised.” That’s what I am glad about too. And glad we are adding to the noise by blogging and tweeting about it.
In reply to Indian Homemaker
Very true. More noise, means more people are aware of the issue. The government has managed to push through horrible legislation in the past simply because there wasn’t enough hullaballo raised over it.
‘annoy’ blasphemy’ ‘disparage’ ‘inconvenience’
We do all that in our daily life when we merely talk to each other. Perhaps we should stop conversing too or have guidelines on what we can and cannot converse between ourselves?!
In reply to Shail
Agreed. It seems the govt. is trying to impose its own civil code on individual people.
But who is going to challenge? Has a PIL been filed?
In reply to Kislay Chandra
Since the law is still a draft proposal, nothing can be done yet. If it actually passes as it is (which I’m sure it won’t), then we’ll see.
In reply to bhagwad
If the bill is presented in the Parliament, it is *very likely* to get passed. The President will also give her assent. After all, very few MPs actually blogd. :D Yes, it might later get challenged in the SC and that is where there could be hope.
In reply to Ketan
It hasn’t appeared before parliament yet. In fact, it hasn’t even been cleared by the Union cabinet yet. I have big hopes that it will be dead on arrival :)
Your post says it all – leaving nothing more to be said really. So now that IHM has asked me if i would like to say anything about this blog censorship move, i am at my wits’ end – do i have anything to add – or should i just provide your blog link? Good work!
In reply to Gopinath Mavinkurve
Publicize the issue as much as possible. Social networks/Twitter are pretty good :)
Hi,
Came here through twitter! :)
This is bullshit! Your last para makes perfect sense. Sometimes I think these idiots think of such laws simply to annoy the crap out of people… it really doesnt make any sense otherwise. I wonder how many of those people would apply these very laws to the crappy state of our media? Plain absurdity!
Glad I read this, I am SO going to blog about this too!
Cheers,
Annie.
In reply to Annie
Yeah, it seems that the babus think we’re having too good a time. Blogs in India have started to shape public opinion and they might want to have controls over a medium like this. But I don’t really think that’s the reason. I think the govt. tried to copy the USs DMCA procedure and stupidly included blogs in the list of “service providers” like ISPs and telcos.
Oh God! Most men visiting my blog are going to be annoyed. I can’t believe that the boy who didn’t know how to eat an apple without an apple cutter is going to be able to take down blog because of my “disparaging” post about him. What next? Novelists who annoy people are going to are going to have to pay 5 lakhs?
In reply to Careless Chronicles
That’s the problem na? Anyone can be “annoyed” by anything!
//…is a symptom of a government which is badly out of touch with reality and just doesn’t “get” what the Internet is all about.
lol.. That sounded funny, piercing and true!!